
Qass. 
Book. 



LIFE AND CHAKACTEK , 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



-A^lSr A^DDBESS 



DELIVERKD AT THK 



HALL OF THE NORMAL UNIVERSITY, 



APRIL 19th, 1865, 



By EICHAED EDWAEDS. 



PEORIA, ILLINOIS : 

N. C. IV^SOIV, I»KI]VTER, 33 FXJLTOIV ST. 

1865. 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



^3Sr A.DDIIE8S, 



DELIVERED AT THE 



HALL OF THE NORMAL UNIVERSITY, 



APRIL 19th, 1865, 



By EICHAED EDWAEDS. 




PEORIA, ILLINOIS : 

N. C. NASON, PRINTER, 32 FULTON ST., COR. WASHINGTON. 
1865. 






CORRESPONDENCE. 



Normal, April 20, 1865. 
Prksident Edwards, — 

Dear Sir : At a meeting of the citizens of Normal, held this day at W. G. 
Parr's store, the undersigned were chosen a Committee to request of you for pub- 
lication a copy of your Address on the Life and Character of the late Abraham 
Lincoln, to which they listened yesterday in the Hall of the Normal University. 
A compliance with this request will greatly oblige 
Yours truly, 

L. A. HOVEY, 
E. C. HEWETT, 
GEORGE DIETRICH, 
B. SMITH, 
J. R. BONN,' 



Normal, April 21, 1865. 
L. A. HovET, Esq., Prof. E. C. Hewett, and others, — 

Gentiemen : If in your opinion the publication of the thoughts presented at the 
University Hall on Wednesday will subserve any good purpose, I will cheerfully 
furnish a copy. 

Very respectfully yours. 



i^DDRESS. 



Friends AND Fellow Citizens: 

I appear before you to-day with a preparation entirely un- 
worthy of this great occasion. If every wakeful moment that has 
elapsed since the exercise was resolved upon had been devoted to the 
work, it would have been far too short a time for the elaboration of 
the high and mournful theme. But I find a consolation for this 
want of adequate previous thought in the reflection that the grief that 
afflicts us to-day, the terrible sorrow that has taken hold of the great 
heart of this nation, is too profound for any utterance. Our anguish 
is too poignant for words, however charged with woe. On such a 
theme, eloquence is a mockery. Forms of speech that have been 
prostituted to ordinary uses would profane the unutterable agony of 
the hour. To-day all human utterance seems commonplace ; all ex- 
pressions of ordinary grief seem mean and inadequate. Every heart 
is full of its own inexpressible emotion ; and the silent look, the mute 
grasp of the hand, reveals it to every sympathizing heart more elo- 
quently than the most finished periods or the most burning words. 
Our late beloved Chief Magistrate was endeared to every individual of 
the loyal millions of this people, as only a very few rulers have been 
to those whom they governed. Each feels as if the dastardly blow, 
inflicted as the last insane efi"ort of a desperate and fiendish cause, had 
been struck at a member of his own household. We mourn not 
merely for a public man, but for a dearly-beloved friend and brother, — 
one whose kindly heart and honest purposes had captivated our af- 



4 LIFE AND CHARACTER OP 

fections, even as his noble patriotism and high wisdom had compelled 
our esteem and admiration. 

For the few moments, then, during which we shall remain together, 
let us endeavor to study somewhat the significance of these terrible 
events, and some of the lessons taught us, as individuals and as a na- 
tion, by the life and death of Abraham Lincoln. For great men are 
given to the race for high and noble purposes. Every mighty intel- 
lect, every mind that can soar to the contemplation of the glorious 
works of God, or penetrate to the profound mysteries of his eternal 
plans, that can translate into ordinary speech the laws of the material 
universe and of mind, that can discern and interpret God's truth in 
nature, in history, or in revelation ; or every great soul, cherishing 
high moral purposes, " smitten with the love of virtue, scorning all 
meanness and defying all peril, hearing in its own conscience a voice 
louder than threatenings and thunders, reposing an unfaltering trust 
in God in the darkest hour, ever ready to be offered up on the altar 
of its country or of mankind," — every such mind and soul is a gift of 
God to man. When men have gone on for ages, and lost the vitality 
of some truth, mistaking for its essence some old form in which it 
had been clothed to meet the appreciation of a rude age, a new mes- 
senger is sent, — a seer, — one whose intellectual vision or moral insight 
is clearer than that of his fellows, who, seeing what others fail to see, is 
prepared to restate or reenact the great principle, in a form befitting 
the needs of his own and of future generations ; and men once more 
emerge from the darkness, and another morning dawns upon their 
eyes. Ever and anon, along the pathway of the centuries, we find a 
bright beacon of this kind, set up for the illumination of succeeding 
times, — a Socrates or a Luther, a Tell or a Washington, a Hampden 
or a Lincoln. These are the gifts of a loving Father to his benighted 
and fallen children. They are sent as powers to lift the race into 
higher and higher planes of being. By successive and cumulative 
labors the progress of man is secured. 

And we are under obligation to learn the high lessons these mes- 
sengers would teach us. With every noble character presented for 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

their contemplation, the responsibilities and duties of the race are 
vastly increased. Woe be to us, then, if we fail to gather up the wis- 
dom they leave us, if we fail to cherish their memories, and to incor- 
porate their noble characteristics into our own mental and moral con- 
stitutions j if, in short, we fail to be wiser, better, nobler men on ac- 
count of the wise, good and noble men whom God has sent as our 
teachers. 

The first and most obvious lesson taught us by our national history, 
especially in recent years, is that, as a people, we have ever been the 
objects of divine care and protection. The fatal news that flashed 
over the wires on Friday night last almost terrified us into the belief 
that a new and most fearful danger had beset our government, — that 
the assassin had pierced the vital spot in our nation's being, that 
those who have so malignantly sought its life were to have their 
fiendish desires gratified. But a moment's reflection dispelled the 
doleful misgiving. We recalled the great events in our national his- 
tory. We remembered the little band of conscientious worshipers on 
board the Mayflower, how they had been preserved from the dangers 
of the deep, from the inclemency of a winter eminent for its severity 
even in New England, from the tomahawk of the exasperated savage, 
from pestilence and famine; how from a colony so insignificant that 
the politicians of the age scarce deigned to notice its existence, it ex- 
panded into mighty states, and became the controlling power in the 
civilization and public policy of a continent; how when its people were 
oppressed by their own king and the government of their native land, 
the principle of liberty trampled upon in their persons, God raised up 
for their protection and guidance the wise, the good, the great man, 
whose name has for near a hundred years adorned the page of history 
with a lustre unparalleled among the greatest men of former times ; 
how in succeeding years all schemes against our nation's life have 
been frustrated ; how we have been protected from every danger, and 
guided in the path of an unexampled prosperity ; how from time to 
time God has called upon us to recognize our glorious destiny ; how 
in the present war we have been chastened with defeat when our eyes 



b LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

needed opening, and gladdened with victory when our hearts were 
tailing; how, amid conspiracies and unusual perils, our beloved chief 
magistrate was spared to us for four years, to accomplish deeds that 
shall be remembered with gratitude by coming millions; we re- 
membered all this, and said '' Surely God has been training this na- 
tion for a destiny more glorious than has ever been illustrated in 
history, and the purposes of the Almighty are not to be baffled by a 
skulking miscreant in a midnight murder." We asked ourselves why 
Mr. Lincoln was preserved from assassination four years ago. Why 
by defeats in previous political contests he had been prepared for his 
elevation to the presidency. Why at this moment, having just 
brought four millions of God's children into the enjoyment of the 
heritage which had been violently withheld from them, when the na- 
tion had with such unanimity passed their emphatic verdict of ap- 
proval upon the act, and just as he had uttered in his brief but glori- 
ous inaugural the noblest sentiments that have ever been spoken on 
the steps of the capitol, — sentiments fit to be hugged to men's hearts 
through the coming ages, — why just now, in the enjoyment of the 
highest honors and of the unbounded aflfection of his countrymen, he 
was allowed thus to be smitten. We asked, and our hearts and 
judgments declared that he had been preserved until his work was ac- 
complished, that the divine plan in respect to him had been fulfilled, 
that the time was ripe for his departure. 

A little more than four years ago this nation was debating whether 
it could constitutionally defend itself against the murderous thrusts of 
traitors. By many it was maintained that we had no right to coerce 
those who were tearing the government asunder. . On these vital 
questions we were a divided people. It appeared as if the cause of 
the country would go by default. Its enemies were a united, com- 
pact and efficient body, confident of success. Its friends were scat- 
tered, distrustful, afraid of the rebels and afraid of each other. The 
country was full of the most dismal forebodings. There was timidity 
every where, the darkest treachery in many places, and among others 
jn the national councils. But the peal of rebel guns against the walls 



ABRAHAM LI NCOIiN. 7 

of Sumter awoke the nation from its ignoble hesitancy. We were at 
once knit together as one man. The quibbles of scheming politicians 
and rebel sympathizers were blown to the winds. The nation aroused 
herself and put forth her strength, and as a result, the rebellion is 
already in its death agony. 

And now after four years of war, in our joy at the victories which 
Grod had given us on many bloody battle-fields, and at the near pros- 
pect of peace, we began again to be divided. Many among us began 
to talk of magnanimity, of generosity to a fallen foe, of leniency and 
conciliation. Four years of the foulest treason, of bloody perjury, 
and of the worst exhibition of bad faith ever made by beings in human 
form, appeared to have been insufficient to reveal to us the true nature 
of the vile institution which has been the cause of all our woe. It 
was proposed to allow the red-handed traitors to return into the full 
enjoyment of political rights, — - to our halls of legislation, and to our 
highest offices of honor and trust. Jeff. Davis was to be regarded 
only as an erring brother, and was to be allowed an opportunity again 
to lay his schemes for becoming President of the United States. Gen- 
eral Lee was to have joint command, with Greneral Grant, of the army 
which he has affected to despise, and done his best to destroy. The 
distinction between treasori and loyalty was to be obliterated in a glo- 
rious display of brotherhood and good feeling. From a dream so idle 
and mischievous, so foolish and criminal, God has aroused us by per- 
mitting this last crowning act of fiendish malignity. And Lee and 
Davis will find themselves exhibited on another stage than that of 
high political preferment. Guerrilla chiefs will hardly be paroled in 
large numbers henceforth. And more than all, the hell-born institu- 
tion, — '' the sum of all villaines," — at whose foul behest all these crimes 
have been committed,- will be swept from the land, and our nation 
shall set forth upon its new and higher life. Thus by the evil deeds 
of impotent man are the great purposes of Providence carried 
forward, human progress is promoted, and the ultimate triumph of 
truth and liberty secured. 

This view of a divine interposition in these affairs is confirmed by 



8 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

the apparent extent of the conspiracy, and its want of success in 
every case but that of the President. Why should the Vice-Presi- 
dent, a man not wanting in energy and ability, and not supposed to 
be over-lenient toward rebels, — why should he escape ? How shall 
we account for the almost miraculous surviving of Secretary Seward ? 
Why were no other persons in high oflSce attacked ? Why was the 
conspiracy allowed to startle the nation by one terrific blow, and its 
murderous hand withheld from further violence ? It was by the act 
of the same beneficent Power that said to the sea, " Hitherto shall 
thou come and no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed," — 
the Power whom the wrath of man shall praise, and by whom the re- 
mainder of wrath shall be restrained. 

Of the lessons taught by the life of Mr. Lincoln we shall find it 
useful to notice that he was a man of the people. And it is a glorious 
commentary upon our institutions that they make a career like his 
possible; that under their benign influence a poor flatboat-man and 
rail-splitter, whose entire school-going experience comprised less than 
one year of time, should be exalted to the highest place in the gift 
of the nation, and should come to be regarded by the millions of his 
countrymen with a reverence and an affection accorded to no other 
man of our time. To this distinguishing trait of our country and its 
policy we refer with a feeling of gratitude to God and to the founders 
of our government. It is this which marks the nation as the chosen 
instrument in the hand of the Ruler of Empires for the propagation 
among men of the true theory of government and of man. For this 
peculiarity is one that exalts us as a people. By as much as we differ 
in this respect from other governments, by so much are we higher and 
nobler than they, nearer the true ideal, nearer the essence and spirit 
of Christianity. For what is the essence and spirit of our holy re- 
ligion ? Wherein does it differ from the systems that preceded it? 
Certainly in no respect more thoroughly than in the recognition of 
the claims of man as man, and not as the possessor of wealth, or as 
the member of an order or a caste ; in making humanity greater and 
more honorable than all its trappings; in reducing prince and peasant, 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 9 

lord and beggar, to the same inexorable standard of value, whereby 
souls only are measured. For the Divine Founder of Christianity was 
no respecter of persons. He came and dwelt among the lowly of this 
world. Arrayed in no purple, adorned with no diadem, He appeared 
in the garb of a Jewish peasant, took up his abode in a despised and 
obscure hamlet, whence no good, it was thought, could come ; mingled 
with publicans and sinners; fed the poor; comforted the mourners; 
sought out the haunts of misery; healed diseases, — especially the 
loathsome ones which gave disgust to the fashionable doctor; called 
unlettered fishermen, and made them his chosen ambassadors to the 
race of man ; while going about doing good, had not where to lay his 
head ; had no social or political influence ; was not a friend of the 
High Priest or of the Roman Grovcrnor; bad no means of influencing 
legislation, or of procuring offices for his friends ; was not even 
a Roman citizen; and finally died by the most ignominious 
form of execution, — a form never used with a Roman, how- 
ever dark his crime ! Oh how humanity was glorified by 
the halo which he shed around its obscurest and most degrad- 
ed forms ! And how distasteful to the refined philosophy of 
heathendom was this humble spirit of universal benevolence ! How 
the proud Platouist, who scorned the vulgar herd, was shocked at 
the idea of a crucified god ! How he spurned the preaching of igno- 
rant, unpolished, inartistic, horny-handed peasants from the Gralilean 
lake! And so it has been through the centuries. Christianity, often 
despised by the great, the powerful, the refined, has constantly ap- 
pealed to the great heart of humanity. Its purpose has been to uplift 
the whole race. Wherever it recognizes a soul, there it bends its en- 
ergies to save, whether that soul be surrounded by the gilding of a 
palace, or befouled by the stains of a poverty-stricken vice. And the 
race has fully responded to the call. Slowly but surely the leaven 
has worked in human society. The heart of universal man has been 
touched by the beneficent appeal. Slowly but surely the area of 
Christendom and the power of Christianity have increased, until at 
last states have come to be established upon the divine principle of 



10 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

human equality, exemplified by the lowly Nazarene. This is the cor- 
ner-stone of our own government; and it is not too much to say that 
our lamented Chief Magistrate has furnished, in his own life, its no- 
blest and most striking illustration. He is the aptest embodiment, 
given in history, of what a Christian democracy may do, — of its power 
to uplift a soul from a lowly place in social life, to a grandeur that 
rank or wealth could never bestow. 

As another lesson worthy to be learned and remembered, we are re- 
minded that Mr. Lincoln was an honest man. Of this the appellation of 
" Honest Abe," bestowed upon him by his neighbors, may almost be 
taken as proof. It is very seldom that a whole community unite in 
crystallizing a man's reputation into a single brief expression without 
a very near approach to the truth. Our country has furnished numer- 
ous politicians and statesmen whom no community would think of 
designating by any such epithet as " honest." It was applied in this 
case because it was merited. But when we come to examine the his- 
tory of the man, we are deeply impressed with this trait in his char- 
acter. His political career was singularly free from reproach, and 
also singularly consistent. 

Think for one moment of his position at the outset of his political 
career. A young man of more than common abilities, evidently fit to 
be a leader in any party to which he might choose to join himself, 
without powerful friends or connections, dependent upon his talents 
for whatever success he might achieve, — what could be more natural 
than for him to throw himself into the arms of the power then dom- 
inant? He could have done this without inconsistency, for his politi- 
cal record was just about to begin. There was nothing in the past to 
bind him. He was free to go wherever he would. How many young 
men would have spread their sails to the favoring breeze ! With how 
many would the sole question have been, " With which party is suc- 
cess?" "Which bestows honors and confers profits?" "Where 
will skill and good abilities earn the highest rewards? " And would 
such a course be regarded as at all dishonorable, or inconsistent with 
moral rectitude, as measured by ordinary standards? Not in the least. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 11 

It is considered the right of young men to make the best terms they 
can with fortune and the world. It is hardly fashionable to be very 
nice in consulting conscience on such a point. 

But not so thought Abraham Lincoln. His moral sense was too 
nice to make his politics merely subservient to his interests. He sup- 
ported or opposed public measures as they seemed to him right and 
beneficent, or the opposite. With him a vote was a matter of con- 
science. He adopted his political theories because he thought they 
were right, and in their defense he was ready to incur any sacrifice. 
" Rather than surrender his principles, he would prefer to be assassin- 
ated on the spot," — so he tells us in words that seem prophetic. 

And so this popular young lawyer, with talents fitting him to oc- 
cupy the highest places, buried himself in what seemed an impene- 
trable obscurity by joining a hopeless political minority, and by adher- 
ing to its fortunes with unwavering fidelity. In a county and state 
giving overwhelming democratic majorities, he became a whig, from a 
full and earnest conviction of the truth and justice of the principles 
and measures of that party. And never for one moment did he desert 
those principles. For twenty years or more, he battled more or less 
constantly against a power that, he thought, was working harm to the 
country, — a power that in Illinois and in Sangamon county was in- 
vincible at the polls, except when, once or twice, his personal popu- 
larity was able to overcome it. And more than this : In a community 
where the slightest taint of anti-slavery was sure death to a politician, 
he never shrunk from denouncing the institution as a great wrong. 
"If slavery is not wrong, then nothing is wrong," — this was the key 
of all his utterances on the great question. While in Congress, dur- 
ing the brief two years of his membership, he stood repeatedly with 
J. R. Giddings in favor of motions looking to the abolition of slavery 
in the District of Columbia, and voted forty-two times for the Wilmot 
Proviso, excluding slavery from the territory acquired from Mexico. 
In his famous debate with Douglas in 1858, there was no holding- 
back of his old convictions. Every where he insisted on the wrong 
of slavery, and deprecated the admission of more slave states into the 



12 LIFE AND CHARACTER OP 

Union. Like every other law-abiding man, he desired that the con- 
stitutional rights of the South should be maintained; and he perse- 
vered in this desire until, by an act of insane and perfidious war, they 
cut themselves off from every right. In these days of sudden conver- 
sion to the rankest abolitionism, when men who but three years ago 
were applauding the enormities of a New-York riot are shouting 
themselves hoarse in behalf of negro suffrage ; when old-fashioned 
abolitionists are made dizzy by their efforts to keep pace with the rad- 
icalism of former McClellan men ; when visions of past offices have 
so intensified in many hearts the hatred of slavery and the love of the 
negro, — it is refreshing to find one man in high place who has not 
deemed it necessary to change his views on great principles, — who 
has professed the same faith, as to essentials, for near thirty years of 
political experience. Indeed, the history of Mr. Lincoln for that 
period, from 1836 to 1865 amazes one in this respect. It is hardly 
too much to say that at the day of his death he stood very near, as to 
great fundamental principles, to his position thirty years before. Very 
few men, at all eminent in politics, have moved so little as he. There 
has always been the same noble adhesion to the genuine spirit of de- 
mocracy, the same love of every form of justice and equality, the same 
abhorrence of injustice and tyranny. 

' And his life is a noble illustration of the adage that " Honesty is 
the best policy." Not that this adage furnishes a sufficient reason 
for being honest. The honesty that is induced by a desire to secure 
some personal advantage is hardly worth the name. There are some 
kinds of honesty, too, that, in the view of keen-sighted men, are very 
bad policy. The true reward of personal integrity is not what is usu- 
ally called personal advantage. But God has so adjusted the laws of 
human life that the true good of the individual does follow the strict- 
est honesty. And so it was in the case of Mr. Lincoln. His life was 
a glorious success. Not a man has ever had his name written in the 
annals of time who would not be a gainer by exchanging his fame for 
that of our martyred Chief Magistrate. When History is making up 
her lists, and the noble ones of all time are arranged in a glorious 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 13 

company, what form among them all will shine brighter than his? 
Bright in a persistent purpose to do the right as far as he saw it; in 
his manly simplicity; in his unshaken trust in God and faith in 
man, — trusting even the assassin that was about to slay him, and never 
failing to confide to the full in the people whom he governed ; and 
above all, bright in the glorious privilege of sacrificing his life for his 
country and his principles. As an undying possession, as a heritage for 
all the ages, give me the clear fame of Abraham Lincoln, rather than 
the most magnificent reputation built up by the proudest conqueror 
that ever stained his guilty blade in the blood of his fellow man I 

How many men of transcendent mental powers have sought to be 
President of the United States? How many have gazed on the shin- 
ing goal with longing but unsatisfied eyes ? - Henry Clay, the silver- 
tongued, whose fervid eloquence stirred the hearts of his admiring 
countrymen from sea to sea and from lake to gulf, with a high ambi- 
tion, " the last infirmity of noble minds," strove to clutch the coveted 
prize ; and his last days were darkened by the cloud of a sad disappoint- 
ment, because he failed to reach it. Daniel Webster, one of the most 
nobly endowed intellects of all time, who by his masterly logic and 
glowing imagination guided the thoughts and shaped the opinions of 
millions of thinking freemen, pursued through a long and honored 
life the same glittering phantom ; and when at last, after leading him 
through bogs and quagmires of political chicanery, it finally and for 
ever eluded him, he sought his secluded home in Marshfield, and died 
of a broken heart; while the Atlantic waves, rolling almost at his 
bedside, seemed in a sad, monotonous and majestic dirge to wail over 
the crushing of his hopes ! Other eminent names rush to the memo- 
ry, of gifted citizens who have fallen in the same unsatisfying pursuit, 
after exhausting, by themselves or their friends, every political art 
that could be brought to bear upon the point. But Abraham Lincoln, 
with no brilliant accomplishments, no such eloquence as Clay's, no 
such ponderous intellect as Webster's, with little skill in manipulat- 
ing parties, far from being a match for his rival Douglas in managing 
the public sentiment and in turning it to his own advantage, — indeed 



14 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

with Qotliiag but his straight-forward houesty to distinguish him from 
many other men, — Abraham Lincoln found the presidential mansion 
opening its doors and inviting him to enter : the post stood candidate 
for him. Plain, simple, unadorned, — the people's man, — he was called 
by his countrymen to the great office, simply because they believed 
him an honest man, — one whose promises could be trusted, one who 
would practice no dishonest jugglery or legerdemain. And nc^; only 
did they call him to the highest office in their gift, but they bestowed 
upon him their heart treasures, — their esteem, their confidence, and 
their aflFection, more lavishly than upon any other man since Washing- 
ton ! When will our public men learn that the truest and only satis- 
factory success can be secured in no way but by an honest and sincere 
devotion to the public weal ! May we not hope that by the terrible 
experience of the last four years we have been taught something of 
the value of principle as opposed to mere management, of downright 
integrity as opposed to dishonest intrigue ? How during this terrible 
contest men have been tried ! How great principles have risen in 
unwonted might, and demanded the allegiance of all men ! What a 
laying-aside have we seen of supple-jointed, limber-backed politicians ! 
How the miserable quibbles and intricate nothings of the political 
arena have been swept out of sight, and men have been compelled to 
engage in discussing momentous questions that are to influence man- 
kind for ages ! And shall this be all in vain ? Are our public men 
to be the same race of pigmy schemers and supple flunkeys that we 
have sometimes seen ? Shall we not have, for a time at least, as a re- 
sult of this war, a race of stalwart men, honest, straight-forward, 
trusting in God and the right, — men, in short, after the similitude of 
Abraham Lincoln ? 

But not only was Mr. Lincoln of the people and honest. He was 
also a great man. We do not by this mean that he possessed all kinds 
of greatness in the highest degree. But we do affirm that he was en- 
dowed with an unusually full share of the highest kind of greatness. 
Dr. Channing, in his admirable and truthful analysis of the character 
of Napoleon Bonaparte, notes three principal forms of greatness. And 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 15 

among these, he assigns the highest place to moral greatness, that 
which lifts the soul above all things mean and untruthful, and makes 
it willing to suffer any pain rather than renounce its allegiance to 
God and the truth. This is the greatness that has characterized the 
world's heroes and martyrs, that has lifted them up into a calm and 
serene abnegation of self, into a lofty and unhesitating devotion to 
duty, into an unfaltering conviction that in the hands of the good God, 
all things, whether joyous or sorrowful, will in the end help to bring 
about the highest good. This type of character, — this great moral 
power, — marked Mr. Lincoln through his whole life. It enabled him 
to use life's experiences for his own and others' good. The career of 
a Mississippi boatman,— so fatal to many young men, because they 
have not moral power to convert its boisterous experiences into steps 
in manly progress, — was to him, no doubt, a source of improvement in 
the power to resist temptation. He was a stronger man for this ex- 
perience, in all the elements that go to form a noble character. A 
man that can draw moral nourishment from the turbid influences of 
such a life must surely have true greatness conceded to him. A lit- 
tle man, — little in the essentials of a true manhood, — could never di- 
gest such materials into that noblest product of the divine hand, an 
honest man. This power to transmute the evil of this world into a 
sterling Christian character, to gather honey from the thorns and net- 
tles of an unpropitious experience, to turn the darts of the devil 
against him who hurled them forth, — this is a power allied to that of 
God himself, and stamps its possessor with the unmistakable impress 
of true greatness ! 

But Mr. Lincoln was also great in his simplicity, and in his full 
confidence in the ultimate success of the Right. Little men are ever 
seeking circuitous paths, — ever striving to prop up their feebleness 
by intrigue and strategy. It takes a strong mind to rely implicitly 
and calmly upon the final triumph of truth and justice. The small 
craft toss and plunge with every wave that rises ; but the vast steam- 
ship plows her way through their midst, never deviating from her 
true course. Thus great minds, guided by a celestial light, spurn 



16 LITE AND C H ABAC TER OF 

every solicitatioa that would draw them aside into the paths of chi- 
canery and deceit. They see so clearly the end from the beginning, 
they comprehend so fully the great purpose of life, that they can not 
prevail upon themselves to stoop to the little by-plays of faction. And 
they always succeed, because their lives are in harmony with the 
great plan of the universe ! 

And Mr. Lincoln was also great in his opportunities. In this 
respect, certainly, no man has ever exceeded him. Think for one 
moment of what he has been permitted to do ! It was his good 
fortune to be at the head of this great nation when, in the provi- 
dence of God, it became necessary to decide the most momentous 
question it has ever had under consideration, — the question whether 
Liberty was to be made universal, or to be confined to a class or a 
race, — the question whether, in our dealings with all the inhabitants 
of this great country, we were willing to adopt the Golden Rule — to 
do unto others as we would have them do to us. Mr. Lincoln has 
been compared to George Washington, and certainly there is much in 
their characters that is alike. There is the same stalwart honesty, 
the same abhorrence of trickery and scheming, the same serene faith 
in the final triumph of a good cause, shining brightest, in the case of 
both, in the darkest hour. But compare the relative positions of the 
two men. Washington led the nation in its struggle for existence. 
The people of the colonies had been oppressed by the mother country. 
Their rights had been invaded. Taxes had been unjustly levied. In 
various ways, commerce and industry had been crippled. Ports had 
been closed against trade. The manufacture of certain articles of 
necessity and utility had been prohibited by law. It was apparent 
that the British Government was unwilling to allow the colonies the 
rights enjoyed by Englishmen. To these unjust exactions, these 
tyrannical assumptions of power, it was determined no longer to submit. 
And so the patriots of '75 took up arms in their own defense. They 
saw that if their rights were ever secured to them, it must be by their 
own valor and resolution. And a sublime spectacle it was to see three 
millions of peaceful men rise in arms against a mighty empire. We 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 17 

shall never cease to revere the memories of those noble men, who 
were willing to pledge their " fortunes, their lives, and their sacred 
honor," in order to secure, to themselves and their posterity, the 
blessings of liberty. 

In 1861 there was an attempt, violent and bloody, to undo the work 
of the fathers. It seemed as if the fair fabric reared by their hands 
at such fearful cost of blood and treasure was about to be ground into 
the dust under the heel of a treason darker and bloodier than the 
world had ever seen. Before this unhallowed power every thing 
seemed about to give way. It was stalking triumphant over the land. 
Great states yielded, one after another, and enrolled themselves among 
its partisans. The terrible upheaval seemed to include the continent 
in its baleful undulations. And now it was that Mr. Lincoln appeared 
as the preserver of the republic. By his unselfish patriotism, his pa- 
tience and wisdom, he proved himself worthy to be the successor of 
Washington, to be the savior of the nation of which Washington 
was the father. And in many respects, surely, his task was more dif- 
ficult than that of his immortal predecessor. When he came into 
power, the arm of the government was paralyzed. Its proper 
guardians had become its betrayers and deadly foes. Foreign nations 
looked with ill-concealed pleasure upon the threatened downfall of the 
great republic. A large majority of those who had been accustomed 
to control its affairs were open and active in the nefarious work. To 
the true patriot it was surely a dreary and appalling prospect. How 
well, under the guidance of our great and good leader, we have 
weathered the storm, the annalist will never be weary of telling. In 
relating the events of these heroic times, sober history will glow with 
an unwonted eloquence. 

But in this contest there was more at stake than the saving of the 
country. Our fathers thought it possible to establish a republic in 
which only a part of the people should be citizens, — iu some portions 
of which there should be a servile class. They hoped that the speck of 
darkness, — a half-million of slaves, — would hardly obscure the glory 
of the new democracy. Eighty years of trial has taught us better. 



18 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

We know that so long as men are selfish, they never will relinquish 
the possession of irresponsible power over their fellows. And we 
know, too, that the possession of such power intensifies the love of it, — 
that, year by year, the dominant race clings with more and more tenacity 
to its authority, — that slavery once thoroughly established will never 
knowingly abolish itself Before us in this contest, then, was the 
question of the freedom, not of a half-million bondmen, but of eight 
times that number. True, the institution in the struggle had become 
identified with the treason that was clutching at the nation's life, — had 
in fact instigated that treason in its own interest and behalf But 
many believed the country could be saved without destroying slavery. 
So that the problem of putting an end to this institution was, to some 
extent, presented to the people and President as an independent enter- 
prise. That is, the nation and President were called on to decide 
whether the enfranchisement of four million human beings should be 
undertaken by the government; whether the nation .would put forth 
its energies, expend its treasure and shed its blood, for an alien race, — 
a race despised, and degraded by centuries of oppression, — a race that 
was declared to be incurably indolent, and unfit for freedom ; a race, 
we were told, that would never, if released from involuntary toil, put 
forth vigor enough to earn its own living. This race Abraham Lincoln 
declared should be free. By a stroke of his pen he conferred upon 
them the inestimable blessing of the ownership of themselves. By 
his glorious proclamation of January 1st, 1863, he converted them 
from chattels into men. He wiped the dark stain from the fair es- 
cutcheon of our country, and made it indeed and in truth the land 
of the free as well as the home of the brave. Our fathers, in the 
revolution, fought under Washington, gloriously, nobly, and from 
principle ; but it was for themselves. It was to remove the yoke from 
their own necks that they stood their ground at Bunker Hill, fought 
in the terrible heat of Monmouth, and waited in long and dreary deso- 
lation at Valley Forge. But for us in our late conflict it must be con- 
ceded that, after all deductions are made for our hesitation in adopting 
the emancipation policy, notwithstanding our efi'orts to make terms 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 19 

with slavery, the war has been to a great extent carried on for the 
purpose of " proclaiming liberty throughout the land to all the in- 
habitants thereof." Mr. Lincoln has enjoyed the honor of leading 
the nation in its efforts for the oppressed. We have fought not for 
ourselves alone, but for the poor, the weak, the down-trodden. And 
inasmuch as it is more blessed to give than to receive, to toil and incur 
danger in others' behalf than to labor for ourselves ; inasmuch as 
doing a deed of kindness to one of the least of G-od's suffering 
children is the same as doing it to the master himself, — then surely 
Lincoln the Liberator, contending for a grand unselfish and beneficent 
idea, is greater, in his opportunities and his position, than Washington 
the Patriot, fighting for the freedom of his native land. 

I repeat, then, Mr. Lincoln was a great man : great in his power 
over life's experiences; great in his simple-hearted trust in God and 
the Right ; incomparably great in his unrivaled opportunities. 

And how sublimely great was he in his glorious death ! Dying as 
he did, and in so nOble a cause, his immortality, the sweet memory of 
him in the hearts of his countrymen, in the literature of his country 
and of the world, wherever the names of the good and great 
are treasured as rich gifts from the past, is secured beyond doubt or 
peradventure. When will the true lover of his country, he who is 
proud of her in proportion as she is pure, humane, just, virtuous, and 
free, — when will he forget Mr. Lincoln, her best embodiment of all 
these excellences ? At what remote point of the far-distant future, 
as it stretches adown the coming centuries, will the freedman's 
children, lifted by liberty into a higher manhood, cease to speak the 
praises of their oreat Emancipator ? And when will the nations of 
the earth, wherever a spark of justice or humanity is cherished, forget 
to execrate the miscreant who could horrify the civilized world and 
plunge it into a heartfelt sorrow by doing a deed so atrocious that 
history furnishes no parallel to it ? Surely the memory of our 
murdered President will be preserved in the grateful hearts of coming 
millions, when those of most great men, so called, shall have passed 
into irretrievable oblivion. 



20 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF » ' <_. 

And what a power for good will this memory be ! What a purify- 
ing and ennobling influence will it exert upon the young men of our 
land ! How mightily will it recommend to them the virtues of in- 
dustry, honesty, and patience ! Success in life has been so long asso- 
ciated with intrigue and overreaching, that there is a constant and 
potent force operating to blunt the moral sensibilities of the young. 
The apparently great men of this world have been, to a great extent, 
unscrupulous men. Integrity, honest industry, fair dealing, have 
been regarded not only as unfashionable, but also as unprofitable. 
We thank God, then, that in the person of Mr. Lincoln these humble 
traits of character have been glorified ! That for once they have 
been joined with the most brilliant success and the most magnificent 
reputation ! How through the ages will the memory of this 
honored name plead with men in behalf of these virtues ! 

And what a source of strength will this noble fame be to down- 
trodden humanity every where ! How it will rekindle the hope of the 
prisoner in his dungeon, and of the slave at his toil ! How it will 
hasten the coming of that glorious day when the shackles shall fall 
from every limb, and the light of liberty shall shine into every soul ! 
" If the North succeeds," is a saying attributed to Carlyle, "England 
goes to democracy by express train." Most true, thou Prophet of 
the Old Dispensation. And not England only, but all the world. 
The oppressed millions of every land will catch the glitter of our tri- 
umphant bayonets. Our great example will stir anew the love of 
liberty in every soul of man, and the entire race, redeemed from po- 
litical thralldom, shall yet praise God for the life and death of 
Abraham Lincoln ! 



D S '12 



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